What is Your Heart?

What is it that gets you excited each morning as you wake up?  What is it that keeps you going when you are down, what is it that focuses your work, your finances, and your time?  For the apostle Paul it was helping people to know God.  Paul had been given a second chance at life by God, and wanted to extend that same opportunity to others.  He says this in 1 Corinthians 9, “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them. (1 Corinthians 9:19, ESV)  Paul goes onto say that he has become like Jews, gentiles, lawless and lawful people all so that he could share the gospel with them, so that he might save some.  Paul’s heart is for the gospel, and in all that he does he is seeking to share the gospel and introduce others to God.

So we have to ask ourselves, what is our drive as Christians?  What is it that gets us excited about church, about our faith?  Is our drive to find a nice church that tells us what we want to hear, or instead to challenge us and help us to grow?  Is our drive to read all of scripture, or just focus on the sections that we like the most?  Is our drive for more people to know Jesus because of us, or does that idea makes you a little uncomfortable?

Paul writes this passage knowing that he once was outside of Jesus’ church, and in fact spent his time persecuting Christians all across the Romans empire.  But God gave Paul a second chance, He saved him, and gave him a new purpose in life: carrying the message to non-churched people who have not heard it.  Paul knew how Jesus could transform a life, it forever changed the direction of Paul’s life.  For him he knew he had to give back, to show his thankfulness for what God has done for him by taking the same message to others, and helping others to know God.

So where is your heart?  As you think about what gets your excited about your faith, about church, about life, what is it that drives your heart?  Each of us have been transformed by what God has done for us and through us, shouldn’t our hearts be to help others know that same God who changed our own lives?  Read these lyrics from the song “I’m for You” by Christian artist Toby Mac, and think about where your heart is, “Whatever I gotta be  I’ll be for you, Whatever you need from me To see it through”  Do our hearts say this to God?  Does our heart for God and his work push us like Paul to, “become all things to all people so that I might save some.” (1 Corinthians 9: 22).